Faculty Row’s listing on the National Register was as contentious an issue then as it is now. According to the article, UConn’s trustees felt the houses stood in the way of progress and were offended that anyone would attempt to tell the university what to do with its own property — basically silencing those passionate preservationists who dared to speak out, including state preservation officials and a professor of architecture at the school.

In 1986, John Shannahan, state historic preservation officer at the time, initiated a review of 3,700 properties for their historical merit, finding 900 properties worthy of state historic designation — the most outstanding of which were nominated to the National Register. These included the brown cottages on the UConn campus that are now threatened. This prestigious designation means that these cottages automatically fall under the protection of the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act.

Now, 27 years later, the National Register, CEPA and other covenants designed to protect endangered properties are not helping the many advocates who wish to preserve the cottages.

In my view, SHIPO and some state officials whose job it is to publically enforce and support these protective covenants have failed in their mandate by privately granting permission to demolish these nine houses. The State Historic Preservation Council, whose job it is to fund and preserve these endangered properties, was denied the opportunity to hear this issue. Close to 700 petitioners of Save UConn’s Faculty Row continue to wonder why.